Leaders and Organizational Culture - Essay Example

Running Head: LEADERS AND ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE Topic: Leaders and Organizational Culture Lecturer: Presentation: Introduction Creating a healthy organizational culture is important in promoting success in a business organization (Hoe, 2003). As such it is necessary for leaders to balance their attention by not concentrating only on the profit maximization but also on efforts to create a good organization culture. A good organizational culture defines shared values, beliefs as well as the expectations of how everyone is supposed to behave (Schein, 2000). It helps in emphasizing as well creating a harmonious environment for doing business by defining how the business conducts its activities thus creating a unique cohesion between employees at all levels. Through it, various issues that may arise in the process of doing business can be resolved in a systematic way due to the already established methodologies and protocols which may go a long way in resolving conflicts without delay. This essay is a critical evaluation of the roles and responsibilities of leaders in creating and maintaining a healthy organizational culture. Creating and Maintaining a Healthy Organizational Culture Organizational culture refers to the set of shared beliefs and norms that guide the behavior of all the members as well as their way of conducting the day to day activities and which are within the vision and mission of the organization (Schein, 2000). Leaders are charged with the responsibility of initiating and maintaining an organizational culture that facilitates growth and progress in an organization as well as setting standards by leading as a good example. The relationship that exists between employees and their leaders is a key foundation to the success of a business organization. As such, it is the role of the leaders through management to ensure that there is a favorable environment for working, which would motivate their employees to put extra efforts in their activities which are important to the production process as well as maximization of profits (Morris, 2002). The leaders should come up with a policy which would act as a guideline to assist in recognizing the key motivation factors for the employees such as providing subsidized medical services, which is necessary to ensure that employees are always healthy in order to prevent cases of absenteeism from work due to minor cases of infections which they cannot afford to treat, appreciation through bonuses as well as promotion. This should be maintained as a trend so that even if new managers joining the business would have an easy task by following what their predecessors were doing. Leaders also have the responsibility of building trust among the employees and the management, which is achievable through the involvement of employees in certain decision making such as the introduction of change (Morris, 2002). By doing so, the possibility of experiencing conflicts which may arise due to such decisions is minimized. In view of the above, change is inevitable as technology as well as other business oriented features keeps on changing from time to time. As such, it is important for business organizations to upgrade their systems from time to time in order to keep up with the trends in the market. Through their leadership qualities, which enable them to acquire followers unlike managers who have subordinates, leaders play the role of introducing such change due to their passion to achieve their vision, which sometimes results to conflicts (Schein, 2000). It is therefore a must for a good organization culture to appreciate this fact so as to enhance competition with other organizations. By the virtue of their ability to convince and to take risks, leaders facilitate the necessary support from the employees which is essential while introducing change. The leadership in an organization too has the responsibility of ensuring that organizational culture is maintained due to the fact that it may be possible to develop a good organizational culture only for it to lose its significance within a short period of time (Morris, 2002). As such it is the role of the top leadership to promote the culture by practicing and showing commitment, which would be essential in convincing other stakeholders as well as employees that the culture is actually working so that they can also adhere to the policies and the fundamental principles of the culture. This is because no person would be interested or obliged to observe a culture that even its initiators have no interest in. Leading by example motivates other persons observing you to follow in your ideologies as well as to give up on their personal activities in order to participate in the building of a successful organization, which they would be proud of working in (Hoe, 2003). They should also be vibrant in introducing and actualizing new ideas as well as promoting employee’s lives by encouraging them and promoting the achievement of their personal goals so as to compensate their sacrifice which is in terms of time and labor, which would be essential in motivating them to produce more viable results. Designing an effective organizational culture does not necessarily guarantee a steady future in the long run. As such, the leadership has the role of ensuring that the culture they develop has a room for accommodating the dynamic nature of market, which keeps on changing from time to time depending on environmental or other factors that influence it (Hoe, 2003). For example, it may be the culture of an organization to deploy much of its human resources to a subsidiary in a place for example America due to the availability of market in the place and also due to the fact that it is the main branch but after sometime, the market may go down and at the same time rise in another subsidiary located in another place for example in Britain. If this happens, it should be easy for the organization to shift its attention from the main branch by relocating some of the human resources as well as other resources, which may be useful in promoting and capturing the new market opportunities present in Britain (Hoe, 2003). In this context, the leaders have the role of conducting consequent reviews on the trends in the market so as to realize weaknesses as well as strengths in the market and also to be informed on areas that may require the organization to reorganize itself. Communication is essential in the success of an organization. However, most of the organizational cultures promote authoritative organizational structures whereby communication flows only in one direction that is from the top downwards (Morris, 2002). As such, it fails to acknowledge the importance of the information that can be acquired from the lower levels of management as well as from the employees. As a recommendation, these organizations should change this culture so as to enable their employees to contribute their ideas towards their growth and development. This can be achieved by creating channels which would facilitate the transfer of information from the employees as well as other junior staff, for example through the use of suggestion boxes which should be put at strategic points such that any person can drop his or her written suggestions in them after which the person responsible of collecting them can handle them to the leaders for evaluation. Else, the leaders should come up with a strategy that would involve organizing interactive meetings with the staff as well as other stake holders whereby issues concerning the organization would be discussed freely. Doing so can yield results as everyone would be willing to contribute his or her ideas either against or for some activities which are conducted in the business. Conclusion Organizational culture simply refers to the way an organization conducts it activities guided by its vision and mission. Leaders unlike managers are known as to have the necessary attributes which are either acquired through training or by nature and which enable them to take up difficult responsibilities such as creating and maintaining a healthy organizational culture. These roles may include and not limited to introducing change, proposing and strategizing on the requirements of the organization for example after reviewing the market trends, which may necessitate relocation of resources from one subsidiary to another etc. they also have the role of ensuring that the culture remains valid and visible by acting as role models, thus motivating other junior staff as well as other stake holders to uphold the spirit of the culture. References Hoe, S. (2003). Understanding Organizational Culture, Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 24(2), 100-110 Morris, R. (2002). Harvard Business Review on Culture and Change, Harvard Business Press Schein, E. (2000). 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